An artist’s paintbrushes are one of the most important tools. Choosing between all the different types of paint brushes for your project can be daunting. With so many different shapes and sizes, it can be hard to know which one to use. Each brush shape and size has a purpose and results in different effects. Practicing with each brush shape to see which kind you prefer is a great place to start! Read below to learn about each type of shape and what they can be used for.
Flat shapes are great for filling in large areas of color, painting straight lines, and blending. A few of the most common brushes in the flat family are flat shaders, filbert, angular shader, and wash brushes. This is what we like to use each type for:
• Flat shaders: These brushes are a little longer than chisel blenders and allow you to create a longer stroke. They are great for filling in large areas of color or using the chiseled edge for thin lines. • Filbert: Filbert brushes are like a flat shader; however, they have a rounded tip instead of a straight one. These brushes are great for creating soft edges. For example, a rose petal or cloud. They work well for blending and creating dry brushed textures as well. • Angular shader: Angular shaders are perfect for crisp edges and allow for precise control. The angled tip is perfect for blending in tight areas and making thin lines. • Wash/Glaze: A wash brush is a must-have for creating base coats, applying color to large areas, and broad strokes. Every artist should have at least one in their arsenal.
Round brushes are an extremely versatile brush to paint with! They’re perfect for detail work and thicker strokes. They come in various shapes such as round, liner, spotter, quill, and long round. Learn more about the different round shapes below:
• Round: Your basic round brush can be a normal round or a long round shape. These brushes are great for small details or filling in large areas depending on how much pressure you apply and the brush size. Larger round brushes (higher numbers) can hold quite a bit of water in the belly of the brush but still end in a fine tapered point. This allows for a variety of strokes and the ability to move from large coverage to tight detail without having to dip back into the paint often. • Liner: The long hairs on a liner brush allow for consistent thick to thin lines when painting things like vines, tree branches, and foliage. • Spotter: Spotter brushes are ideal for detail work. You can create very fine and precise lines in miniature paintings. • Quill: These brushes specifically have a large belly to hold more paint and allow you to create large washes of color.
When creating things like grass, fur, or clouds it can help to use a specialty-shaped brush. There are many specialty-shaped brushes, but we’re going to discuss just a few. The following are the most typically used shapes:
• Fan: These brushes are great for blending and softening the edges of paint strokes. You can also use it to dry brush and create hair, trees, grass, and shrubbery. • Round Blender: Use a round blender when you want to soften an area and blend the colors together. • Filbert Grainer/Grainer: In this brush, the hairs are thinned and spread apart near the tip to allow for painting fur, grass, cross-hatching, and other textures. • Mops: Mop brushes are the best for moving low viscosity paints and blending. You can also use them as a soft wash brush to spread the color.
Want to learn more about the different types of paint brushes we have? Check out our detailed guide here.
Tags:brush shapes, paint brushes, Princeton Brushes, types of paint brushes
Afew weeks ago, I made a Beginner’s Guide for the different art paints that exist out there and what makes each one of them suitable for a different project.
My readers seemed to enjoy that article and found it very helpful, and that made me write this article about different art brushes and the ones you really need in your collection.
So the way I mentioned in the art paint article, every paint is suitable for a different project. You need to know that paint brushes too, depend on the paint you are using and the desired shapes and lines to paint.
For this article, I will share with you the best brushes I have personally used for reference.
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Related article: Do I need to buy expensive art supplies to make great art?
You need to learn two things about a brush before you go out there and buy it. Its anatomy and what it was made for.
Let’s start from a starting point. As an artist, let’s cut the anatomy of a paintbrush down.
Bristes: So the bristles are the hairs at the very top/head of the brush. These bristles could either be synthetic (fake hair) or made out of real animal hair.
Ferrule: The metal part of a paintbrush that holds the bristles inside. A ferrule could be either round for rounded head brushes or flat for flat brushes.
Crimp: So the crimp is the little part at the bottom of the ferrule that links both the handle and the ferrule.
Handle: The part where we hold the brush from. Handles are either made out of plastic, wood, or metals. they could also be either short or long.
Brushes come in different sizes, different bristles, different lengths, and other details for a reason.
When you are buying your brush from a crafts store, give it the bristle test. Run your hands through the hairs and pull gently on them. If they break or fall, that brush isn’t for you. Otherwise, you’ll have hairs going onto your canvas while painting.
For the ferrule part, I want you to always make sure you’re getting a brush with a ferrule that won’t rust. Because if it rusts, it goes weak and would break easily.
So handles are either long or short. Made of wood, plastic, or metal.
If you are mostly painting on paper, I would highly recommend you get brushes with shorter handles and if you work with canvas, then your best option is to get brushes with longer handles. The difference is the amount of control you want to have on your brush and on your artwork as well. The farther your hand is from your artwork, the softer you paint and the less control you have.
A second point is the material of the handle, If your paint brush handle is made out of wood, it will expand with the use of water, and once it dries, it shrinks back. This movement will cause the handle of your brush to move out of the ferrule and you end up with something like this.
If you buy a paintbrush whose handle is made out of metal, make sure it doesn’t rust. And It is for this reason, that I highly recommend paint brushes with plastic handles because they are the most durable out of the three.
Great for covering bigger areas in less time, holds more paint, great for blending edges.
They basically look like mops, and they hold a lot of water. They are often used for blending, applying color washes, and more watercolor techniques.
These are the ones if you want to paint perfect lines, edge geometric shapes, blend, fill in areas…
Good for painting angles and getting to pointed areas.
These ones are great for painting dots, details, and inconsistent lines, but you can never get a perfect line with them.
Flat at the bottom and rounded at the tip, these are great for painting round shapes like clouds and flowers.
Could be used to paint grass or lines with gaps in between.
Long and thin, good for signatures, and long lines.
Great for blending, could be used to paint trees, grass, and patterns.
There are paint brushes brands I’ve been using for years and haven’t faced any problems with. If you make sure you take into consideration all the previous details I listed above, you can go out there and get your hand on any brush basically and I’m sure you’ll make a good purchase. I get mine from Blick Art Materials.
You can see that over on Blick Art Materials, the brushes are already sorted by what they are made for which is perfect for you if you’re a beginner. These are some of my favorite picks.
This is the Da Vinci Synthetic Watercolor brush set. You can get them here.
You can also watch the demo of each brush on YouTube for maximum info and to pick the brushes you feel like you need the most before you make your purchase.
You can also get one of those affordable water brushes, where you fill it with water and keep painting with it. Get the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle Waterbrush here.
Since both acrylics and watercolors are water-based paints, I wouldn’t mind using the same set of brushes. But for the best experience, I recommend you get synthetic brushes for acrylics and natural hair ones for watercolor because the synthetics hold less water. This set by Da Vinci is one of the best synthetic sets to ever exist. Get your Da Vinci Nova Synthetic Brushes and Sets here. And watch the YouTube Demo video as well.